I'm preparing to run a Traveler-style game, and I'm remembering back to the days when I was playing Traveler.

I had the original game with the black half-sized books (1, 2, and 3), and we played that quite a bit (as well as other games)...

But one thing I never really got was how you were "supposed" to play it.

In D&D you're clearly a band of adventurers and your job is to go into underground mazes, kill things, and take their stuff.

In Traveler, it was a lot less clear to me.

As I get my game defined, I'd like to hear about games you folks played, particularly about how they were set up -- who the characters were supposed to be, why they were hanging out together, etc.

Tell me your stories!

Cheers,
-E.

Quote from: -E.;686978I'm preparing to run a Traveler-style game, and I'm remembering back to the days when I was playing Traveler.

I had the original game with the black half-sized books (1, 2, and 3), and we played that quite a bit (as well as other games)...

But one thing I never really got was how you were "supposed" to play it.

In D&D you're clearly a band of adventurers and your job is to go into underground mazes, kill things, and take their stuff.

In Traveler, it was a lot less clear to me.

As I get my game defined, I'd like to hear about games you folks played, particularly about how they were set up -- who the characters were supposed to be, why they were hanging out together, etc.

Tell me your stories!

Cheers,
-E.

Jeff is the man but for us it started as a rag tag group of disperate, usually ex-military types, who banded together bought a smalls ship and travelled the system trading, taking odd jobs, some leagal some not so much and tryign to avoid the authorities - basically just like Firefly.

Later it developed in various ways, usually for us based on 2000ad comics so we played a bunch of traveller games based on Ace Garp and Space trucking. We played a bunch of strontium Dog style games where we were bounty hunters, a bunch where we were agents getting involved in politics etc, but generally most where we were criminals planning some rather ludicrous heists.

So think Firefly and you basically have Traveller down to a tee.

Quote from: jibbajibba;686984Jeff is the man but for us it started as a rag tag group of disperate, usually ex-military types, who banded together bought a smalls ship and travelled the system trading, taking odd jobs, some leagal some not so much and tryign to avoid the authorities - basically just like Firefly.

Later it developed in various ways, usually for us based on 2000ad comics so we played a bunch of traveller games based on Ace Garp and Space trucking. We played a bunch of strontium Dog style games where we were bounty hunters, a bunch where we were agents getting involved in politics etc, but generally most where we were criminals planning some rather ludicrous heists.

So think Firefly and you basically have Traveller down to a tee.

Firefly is -- no doubt -- the go-to for this sort of thing.

And it captures the, "Hey! We have a ship... let's make some money!" aspects of the Traveler universe.

I also think Cowboy Beepbop is a go-to for that sort of thing.

In both of those, though, the characters had a bunch of back-stories and personal agendas driving them beyond just looking for money.

Did your characters start off with anything like that?

Thanks!
-E.

Quote from: -E.;686987Firefly is -- no doubt -- the go-to for this sort of thing.

And it captures the, "Hey! We have a ship... let's make some money!" aspects of the Traveler universe.

I also think Cowboy Beepbop is a go-to for that sort of thing.

In both of those, though, the characters had a bunch of back-stories and personal agendas driving them beyond just looking for money.

Did your characters start off with anything like that?

Thanks!
-E.

inevitablly becuase of who the players were ....

If you switch out the death option in chargen and add a 'life event' table instead it gives you a wealth of background.

So one of my PCs had a robotic left arm, an ex wife and an addiction to a depressant called Blue.  Another had a warrent out on him, had a fued with a major arms smuggler, and had 2 mental ilnesses , if I recall Agoraphopia and fear of dogs (randomly generated from the CoC tables I think).

Quote from: jibbajibba;686988inevitablly becuase of who the players were ....

If you switch out the death option in chargen and add a 'life event' table instead it gives you a wealth of background.

So one of my PCs had a robotic left arm, an ex wife and an addiction to a depressant called Blue.  Another had a warrent out on him, had a fued with a major arms smuggler, and had 2 mental ilnesses , if I recall Agoraphopia and fear of dogs (randomly generated from the CoC tables I think).

Awesome!

Quote from: -E.;686978But one thing I never really got was how you were "supposed" to play it.

In D&D you're clearly a band of adventurers and your job is to go into underground mazes, kill things, and take their stuff.

In Traveler, it was a lot less clear to me.

The classic Traveller campaigns, the ones most people talked about and played where the Merchant campaign and the Mercenary campaign.

A Merchant campaign involves a ethically challenged crew on a starship jumping from system to system trying to make a buck using the Traveller trade system. It plays out with one week in jump and one week dockside. The referee would use books like 76 Patrons and other random table scattered thourgh the Traveller line and come up with some interesting adventures.

One unique adventure to Traveller was trying to deal with a bureaucratic mess. It was presented in a compact choose your own adventure format and involved you talking to people and finding out who you ought to talk to. You had to deal with each individual difference and there were multiple failure and success paths.

A Mercenary Campaign is where a bunch of characters explore strange new worlds, seek out new life, new civilizations and blow them up.  Traveller supported this by detailing Tickets (i.e. Mercernary jobs) that give a basic outline of the situation along with some referee information.

Both campaigns and other types relied a lot on the referee making up stuff on the fly.

Mixed in all this was the occasional dunge... err exploration of Ancient Ruins adventure.

Plus various possibilities with alien races like the human Zhondani a empire and culture of psionic mind readers. Vargr, sentient Canis Lupus (Dogs) uplifed by the Ancients. Aslans a vaguely cat-like race that is very big on honor and aquistion of land. Solomani, a faction of human of earth who became racist dicks and managed to split off from the Imperium into a empire of their own. THe K'Kree a centauriod race of religously militant vegetarians. The Hivers a hexpod (non-insect tho) race that cooperation well with other alien races, extermely curious, and like to be the secret masters of manipulation.

If you have trouble getting started try looking at my How to Make a Traveller Sandbox. I had some folks say it helped them to get started. The nice about Traveller preparing half this stuff is like a mini-game in of itself.

Quote from: -E.;686978I'm preparing to run a Traveler-style game, and I'm remembering back to the days when I was playing Traveler.

I had the original game with the black half-sized books (1, 2, and 3), and we played that quite a bit (as well as other games)...

But one thing I never really got was how you were "supposed" to play it.

In D&D you're clearly a band of adventurers and your job is to go into underground mazes, kill things, and take their stuff.

In Traveler, it was a lot less clear to me.

As I get my game defined, I'd like to hear about games you folks played, particularly about how they were set up -- who the characters were supposed to be, why they were hanging out together, etc.

Tell me your stories!

Cheers,
-E.

I recommend using DriveThruRPG and downloading Starter Traveller ( a free basic version of the original Classic Traveller), on the same website download the free Book 0: An Introduction to Traveller for Mongoose Traveller (a backwards compatable in print version of Traveller currently available). If you don't have your original Traveller books anymore, both of these free items will help get you back in the mindset of the game's style.

Honestly, the character creation in Traveller for me has always turned out best when it was its own seperate session. The Players tend to talk about the PCs they are creating and then connect with each other how and why they met up. As the individual characters are created, the group very organically forms with them. Once that group concept coalesces, then you can springboard off of that to what adventures are best tailored to them.

As for what is a good default, the Merchant Campaign already mentioned works well. It is similar to Firefly and Cowboy Bebop in its execution.

Will you be using a version of Traveller, or something else for the rules?

Quote from: estar;687047One unique adventure to Traveller was trying to deal with a bureaucratic mess. It was presented in a compact choose your own adventure format and involved you talking to people and finding out who you ought to talk to. You had to deal with each individual difference and there were multiple failure and success paths.

Exit Visa, the one Traveller adventure I never ran for any of my Players because I thought that they would kill me for putting them through that.

Quote from: estar;687047If you have trouble getting started try looking at my How to Make a Traveller Sandbox. I had some folks say it helped them to get started. The nice about Traveller preparing half this stuff is like a mini-game in of itself.

This.

That blog post alone is worth its weight in gold if you are trying to start a Traveller sandbox.

Crew of a trader ship or scout ship is the norm, though I have played and ran military or mercenary games, espionage games, and so forth.

For an example of a recent MongT game I ran (based on a T20 adventure by the talented Martin Dougherty), see here:
http://www.therpgsite.com/showthread.php?t=13171

Guys,

This is solid gold -- exactly what I was hoping for. I'm going to go read the resources now.

Ok, actually, I'm about to do about 23 hours of flying now, but when I get home and un-jetlagged I'll be looking this stuff up.

Thanks!
-E.

As with old D&D, there was a context of inspirational source material; players acquainted with that would have some idea what to expect.

Some examples for Classic Traveller:
Poul Anderson's Nicholas van Rijn and Flandry
Isaac Asimov's Galactic Empire and Foundation
A. Bertram Chandler's John Grimes
Gordon R. Dickson's Dorsai
Harry Harrison's Deathworld and Stainless Steel Rat
almost anything from Robert Heinlein
Keith Laumer's Retief
C.L. Moore's Northwest Smith
Andre Norton's Solar Queen and Forerunners
H. Beam Piper's Space Viking

Quote from: Phillip;687548As with old D&D, there was a context of inspirational source material; players acquainted with that would have some idea what to expect.

Some examples for Classic Traveller:
Poul Anderson's Nicholas van Rijn and Flandry
Isaac Asimov's Galactic Empire and Foundation
A. Bertram Chandler's John Grimes
Gordon R. Dickson's Dorsai
Harry Harrison's Deathworld and Stainless Steel Rat
almost anything from Robert Heinlein
Keith Laumer's Retief
C.L. Moore's Northwest Smith
Andre Norton's Solar Queen and Forerunners
H. Beam Piper's Space Viking

Don't forget Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle. In particular their collaborations in the CoDominion setting like The Mote In God's Eye.

Traveller's flavor seems to me a mix of "space opera" and "hard SF" elements. Some more potential literary sources that are not too far afield, including works from after Traveller's initial publication:
C.J. Cherryh's Alliance-Union
Hal Clement's Mission of Gravity and Star Light
David Drake's Hammer's Slammers
Alan Dean Foster's Humanx Commonwealth
Frank Herbert's Dune
Ursula K. Le Guin's Hainish Cycle
Frederick Pohl's Space Merchants, Heechee and Cuckoo
Charles Sheffield's Behrooz Wolf, Chan Dalton, Heritage Universe
E.E. "Doc" Smith's Lensmen
George O. Smith's Venus Equilateral
E.C. Tubb's Dumarest
Vernor Vinge's A Fire Upon the Deep and A Deepness in the Sky
James White's Sector General

If you like more modern authors, then easily do Alastair Reynolds, John Scalzi, and Allen Steele fit in with the game.

My best Traveller campaigns have been Space Horror. Trav's Imperium is a much quieter place on the surface than Warhammer 40k's Imperium, but there is a lot of dark between the stars. Also Trav's pony express level interstellar communication and its byzantine bureaucracy means that plenty of strangeness can occur long before the engines of Empire can react. Trav's 3rd Imperium doesn't have shining Blood Angels or Space Wolves which can soar to the rescue with inhuman awesomeness.

Also, Trav's Imperium's hands-off policy on individual worlds means that plenty of grotesque mayhem happens without the interference of 40k's Inquisitors who on paper are at least supposed to defend the common man from any evil by their leaders.